OPI is releasing a Matte Top Coat this month, and I was lucky enough to get a bottle to try out and review for you all.  I have a comparison photo at the end of the post, but lets start with this look I created.

I painted my nails using OPI The Spy Who Love Me, let it dry then applied the new OPI Matte Top Coat.  The matte top coat applied very smoothly and evenly and it dried to a smooth matte finish quite quickly.  It still took a bit longer for the polish to harden up, especially as I wanted to create a tape mani and I didn't want it to pull the top coat or polish off.  

After waiting around an hour to ensure everything was totally dry I taped off chevron tips on all my nails.  I then applied nail foil glue, let it dry and applied bright red metallic nail foils.  Once the foil was stuck I quickly applied my top coat to the tips and peeled the sticky tape off.

I'm pretty excited because I think I may have discovered the perfect top coat for nail foils.  Every top coat I have ever trip has wrinkled the foil, but not this one. I can't tell you too much about it yet, because it's a product I was sent to test and it was actually created for a different purpose (which it works well for too).  What I can tell you is that it's something coming from Picture Polish and it will be available hopefully some time in April.  Stay tuned for more details on that!

The above photos were taken in the full sun, so you can really see how matte the finish is on the nail, and also how shiny the red foil is.  The below photos are in the shade.

Here is a comparison of the new OPI Matte top coat to other matte polishes in my collection.  Both Essie Matte about you and OPI Matte top coat are very flat and matte.  Essie may be slightly more flat, but only marginally. My bottle of Essie is past half empty and I often get white dots on my nails from the polish, infact you can see a few little white specks in this photo.  Both Nail Tek Foundation II base coat and the Rimmel matte top coat dry to a more satin finish rather than matte.

I really like the new OPI Matte Top coat, the finish is smooth and I've always loved the OPI pro wide brush for application.  I'm really glad that the finish on this is as good as the Essie and is a really flat matte finish rather than a satin finish. Nice job OPI.

Aussies can get OPI at selected beauty salons, spas, David Jones and now Myer stores nationally, $19.95 RRP incl.GST.  You can check www.opi.net.au for your nearest OPI stockists.

Polish provided for review.

Today I have a simple mani I created using Shimmer Polish - Lianna.  I do like how all the Shimmer Polishes have girls names, although she doesn't have one that match my name exactly.  

I actually don't know any Lianna's in real life, the only Lianna that I'm familiar with is the one that is talked about in Game of Thrones (A Song of Fire and Ice) - ie Lyanna Stark, Eddards sister, fiance to Robert Baratheon, probable lover of Rhaegar Targaryen. Hmmm why did she die in the Tower of Joy and what was it that she made Eddard promise?   I can't wait for season three to start at the end of this month - Torrent here we come!

Anywho - back to Lianna the polish.  As you can see it's a mix of different blues and silver to create a navy blue glitter polish. I've layered Lianna over one of my very oldest nail polishes Loreal Jet.  I've had that polish for about 20 years and its still flawless!  For my gradient fngers, I decided to stamp some small stars from BM012 using Essie Blue Rhapsody from their mirror metallic collection. Then I applied the gradient to the top part of my nail.

Polish provided for review.

Firstly - one last reminder for Aussie ladies to enter my Lust Have It subscription giveaway, it ends a midnight tonight.

Tonight I have the last of my Picture Polish spam posts.  This post completes my collection of Picture Polish shades, which can all be seen on my Picture Polish colour guide.  Of course I know those ladies at Picture Polish are working busily on new shades, so I will continue to add to this as time goes by.

Sparkle - a light silver with a metallic pearl finish with tiny blue, yellow and pink square glitters.  The glitters in the pearly shimmery base tend to make this look a little gritty, but the finish is completely smooth.  This is now a limited edition shade. This is two coats with Ozotic Mr Big High Gloss top coat.

Candy - classic barbie pink creme. Not too bright and not too pale either, just the right amount of brightness for a mid toned pink. This is two coats with Ozotic Mr Big High Gloss top coat.

Peaches 'n cream - a pastel peach coloured creme polish which rounds out the ten light picture polish shades just perfectly. This is two coats with Ozotic Mr Big High Gloss top coat.

Bright White - is just that, a bright clean crisp white.  This has become my go to white polish.  I like the formula a little better than Ozotic Mr Big white polish because this seems to dry quicker. This is two coats with Ozotic Mr Big High Gloss top coat.

Polish provided for review.

Here is my St Patricks Day mani.  I liked the clover mani I created a few weeks ago for the money smart nail art that I had to create another one.  Luckily I had already pressed a number of clovers ready for another mani. I've also loved seeing a number of other manis where ladies used pressed clover leaf, they have all been fantastic!

Polishes used for this mani were:

I just had to share this picture I took today.  Mr 4 and I went to the National Botanic Gardens, mainly just to wander through Rainforest Gully.  They create artifical mist and it's so gorgeous walking along the wooden path along the forest floor.  I managed to capture this very light rainbow too.

Femme Fatale Eventide, not surprisingly, is a polish that I love.  Why? It's gold, remember - I love all the gold polishes!!  It actually has lime gold, rose, fuchsia flecks, gold, holo, sea green and moss, all in a clear base. 

I layered one coat of Eventide over a really old gold polish I have NYX Antique Sparkle - it was just the perfect match.

Do you remember me telling you a couple of weeks back about Aussie artist Jen D'Arcy painting a portrait of Julia Morris using only OPI Lacquers as her entry in Australia's prestigious Archibald Prize.?

I requested a couple of photos from OPI to show you guys the painting she did.  Jen consumed over 1071 bottles of OPI lacquers and she painted directly from the individual bottles.  What an incredible painting!

Polish provided for review.

These pictures are old! I wore these in mid December and am only posting about them now.  These two shades are from the Pretty Serious Christmas without Snow Collection.

Blue Gums on Boxing Day - I remember having a private little giggle when reading some international reviews about this polish and their misunderstanding of the polish name.  I think read a comment about it maybe being reference to being so cold on boxing day that your lips turn blue and another about blue mouth guards that boxers wear.  Seriously funny!  Especially when a quick google search of 'blue gum' is going to tell you exactly what they are are - eucalyptus trees (or a quick check to the Pretty Serious Blog explains the inspiration precisely).  

Things like that really demonstrate to me that many people just write stuff online without switching their brains on first, at least I hope that is what it is.  Another example was a comment I read on someones instragram photo where this person asked if it was really Autumn now here in Australia, cause it was nearly Spring where she was!  Seriously had this lass not learned anything about the other side of the world?

Anywho, Blue Gums on Boxing Bay has a rich emerald green base with a bright blue shimmer. Two coats with Seche Vite top coat.

Party by the Pool - a sheer teal base which is really hard to photograph correctly, it kept leaning way too blue in the first lot of photos I took, these ones are closer to the polish colour. The polish is filled with tiny blue and green glitter flecks that sparkle through the sheer jelly base.  I used three coats for these pictures.

Aussies, don't forget to enter my Lust Have It / The Natural Source competition.  Only a couple of entries so far, so your changes of winning are excellent!!

I have another Femme Fatale cosmetics lacquer to share tonight.  I wore this one about a week ago before I had that disagreement with my broken ring finger nail.

Lucent Ametrine has a clear base with various shades of purple glitter in a multitude of shapes, sizes and finishes.  There are also darker wine coloured glitters, iridescent blue and hints of gold.

Here I have one easy coat of Lucent Ametrine layered over Pretty Serious Atomic Brain. I used Br Big High Gloss Top Coat on top of this, which I've actually been using it quite a lot. I now have a decent dent in my 30ml bottle.  I find it an excellent top coat, it dries fast, is super glossy and doesn't shrink.

Femme Fatale Cosmetics polishes are available directly from her shop for Australians. For all you international ladies, Femme Fatale polishes are available in a bunch of places around the world now.  Check the international stockists page for more info.

 

Aussies don't forget that Femme Fatale now (or will very soon) stocks a number of US indies such as:

• Girly Bits
• HARE Polish
• Rainbow Honey
• Smitten Polish
• Cirque
• Contrary Polish
• CrowsToes
• Enchanted Polish

Polish provided for review.